Somewhere between the companionship, the words, the fatigue, and the wine that we were all sipping as we listened to the works of our peers, I decided that the only thing that is important enough to share today is art. So i took a few, poor snapshots of my work, and have pasted in the poem that my friend Lauren wrote about my picture.
close up of self portrait
close up of carly's portrait, which doesn't really look like her
The whole thing
Lauren Owen
Ode to Roxanne
She floats above my cliff-top realm,
Oblivious to any puff of wind
That otherwise might cause a shift
In the meditations of my pensive girl.
She, alone, with delicate petals
Fights for me the central battle
And when she rises, victorious,
She hovers again on her throne of guidance.
If a flower so small can do so much,
What would happen if a multitude
Thrived together on only a few
Vibrant stalks, strong and lush?
For by day, she descends from her place on high
To join her company at my tableside
As I wander through the castle my thoughts have built—
She’ll be here still, though she may wilt.
Gretz,
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you for letting us see your work! I love the colors and the textures and of course, YOU! If you were here with the painting you know I'd be asking a hundred questions about it. We'll do that when you bring it home.
OK, about the poem...I am a literal thinker, and I can be dense at times. ("Duh, yeah, Mom.") But I even googled "Roxanne" to no avail. Roxanne is the name of a girl I went to high school with (probably now someone's grandmother), the name of a famous Native American sculptor, the heroine in "Cyrano de Bergerac," and a hit song by Sting and The Police. So...what's the connection here? If Roxanne is you, then I guess Lauren really likes you, huh!
Hopelessly addled,
Mom
Haha Well I'm going to limit you to 3 questions at a time, so choose wisely :) Roxanne is what Carly and I named the orange plant (she bought it at the market and it's been our "room plant"). I decided it would bring color and take up space in the painting and it ended up being a focal point. But the plant is dead now- we didn't water it for about a month, and then we drowned it, and now it lives in the turpentine-ridden studio and accidentally got dropped off a window sill haha. But anyway. The plant is named Roxanne. But Lauren likes me anyway :)
ReplyDeleteOkaaayyy....See why I majored in journalism, not creative writing?
ReplyDeleteHey cool paintings! Thanks for showing them :)
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing...difficult for the medical part of me to get into this but i need to in order to be balanced.....so what is balanced? and is that important.....i digress...and love the art and poem and you!!! so blessed art thou!! (josh gave me a difficult time all thru his art school years stating i was "not into outside the box thinking"...mmmmmm)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE YOU GRETA HOPE!!! so wish i was thereeeeeeeeeeeeeee
aunt nance
what were you thinking about in your portrait? I love the expression on your face. And I lOVE the story behind the poem......it's so college! Roxanne may emerge in another life as, hmmmm, let's see - an art student, a beautiful tube of paint that will be sought after and treasured or a brush, a favorite brush that the artist always goes back to and never loses sight of....
ReplyDeleteyour non medical, non journalistic, slightly twisted thinking auntie who loves you to infinity and beyond!